More Pics for the Mill

The Fringe is a little more than just one long massive party. We actually do some work sometimes. Here it is. It's Shitty Deal! Look, a Shitty audience!Oedipus gets nasty with the ladies.


The (slightly damp) cast. Note the irreplaceable Carys Hobbs, right of sweaty.

It's time for the Mrrrrrr. Doper show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fucking Art, huh?
Little Bobby searches for his hoo hoo
French Impressionists
Chinese Opera, Shitty style
There is nothing more terrifying than--The Silence of the Lambs!

The Starve of the Cursing Class

So due to the Scotsman article, we're now sold out through the weekend. This is A)fantastic, and B)a little scarrifying. The 10-star review in the Scotsman was big enough to merit this entry in the Guardian's website, and while that's fantastic, and they're coming to see the show tonight, it does mean that people coming to see our little shitty show are going to have huge expectations. Last night the audience wasn't willing to go with the Shitty aesthetic for 'Arts', which made it a pretty big downer. It was also primarily an older crowd. While I don't have anything against old people (I hope to one day be one myself) they are slightly less inclined to go with swearing naked Barbies and spewing ketchup.

I'm not complaining--it's fantastic. But here's hoping we can keep up with the hype.

On a side note, never drink with poets. Seriously.

Regroup and FIRE!

So, we had the close of the first rainy week of the Fringe, with utter miserableness and general crowds that were lower than we hoped and, while we had some good shows, we weren't all feeling great about it (except Andy, who feels great about everthything, mostly cause of the drugs) and then today happened.

Today was great.

We may have mentioned that the reviewer for the Scotsman gave us two five star reviews, however, today the reviews came out. It was one thing to hear we were going to get one, and another to actually see it on paper. To add joysult to joyjury, a guy from BBC 2's Culture Show is coming to see us tonight, and we have three reviewers from Total Theatre Awards in as well. The audience numbers took a signifigant rise with the review coming out, and today I think I can speak for us all when I say we felt like Rock Stars.

We were also at an interview with Jim Rose (formerly of Jim Rose's Circus Sideshow, the 90's cult phenom), and he and I had a long conversation about William Burroughs shirts and how he's dead (Burroughs, not Rose). It was pretty sweet.

And while I still contend that reviews are a flawed system where the tastes of many rely on the sheerly subjective opinions of a few, damn if it didn't feel good to be on the five star side.

Tonight, more obnoxious party pics that were a lot better if you were there!

What a strange couple of weeks

So yes. Ditto what Will said.

This trip has been so different for me than it was last year. Everything seemed so strange and so new last year, that it took a full week just to settle in and figure out which way was North, which way to look when crossing the street, which potato chips don't taste like ass, what the hell a spanner is. This year I came in knowing all my cardinal directions, knowing to just always look both ways because both Scottish drivers and pedestrians are lunatics, knowing to avoid catchup flavored chips, and that a spanner is a wrench.

It was easy to settle into festival life this year. Our first trip into the city actually felt strangely like coming home. I realized that, other than the places I've lived (Lawrence, New York, Cincinnati, etc), by the end of this trip, I will have spent more time in Edinburgh than any other city. I can give people on the street directions, sometimes.

So now, at the end of week one, loneliness is starting to set in a bit. I'm still having a great time, but flyering is getting a little old, I'm tired, my voice is giving out, but, most importantly, I don't really have anyone to share any of this with. I mean, obviously, I have the boys, but we are together all the time and are working together and that's just a little different than having a friend or a partner here with you.

The fringe is a strange microcosm, completely unrelated to anything else going on in the world. The events that effect our lives so severely here, mean absolutely nothing in the outside world, to our friends and family. And this microcosm only lasts a month. When it's all over, all of these things (reviews, attendance) mean nothing to even us! Next year it starts all over from scratch. I mean, we can generate interest and potentially get other gigs out of the deal, but the primary effect is fleeting but intense.

In addition, we are isolated from our respective real worlds. There are things going on in our lives that are SO much more important than reviews and radio interviews, things that will impact us greatly once we return, but being so far away and so self absorbed, we have absolutely no control over our outside lives. It is a very strange feeling, that of life going on without you at home and not being able to do anything about it. I missed the demolition derby AND the final city band concert for Christ's sake!!!!

My lovely wife is not coming to visit this weekend. In fact, the closest thing I have to a lovely wife is moving to Seattle today. This may account, in part, for my tepid optimism.

So, I will suck it up and go without a really hot shower or a nap in my own bed for a couple of weeks. We are having an amazing time, really, and are faced with some very interesting opportunities in the future. It's just time for a day off, and I am counting the days until I get to drink too much wine as supper club and watch Project Runway. You know, the important stuff.

End of Week One: A Review

So it's the end of Week One already. Tonight we do two shows, then tomorrow we have a blessed and much needed day off. I think I speak for everyone when I say the voices of our merry little band are ragged, the enthusiasm of the initial push has started to be replaced with a feeling of "we've got two more weeks of this?!?", and we're all a little put off by the switch from normal life to the waking up at 11 and going to bed at 4a.m. life. But all in all, I think we're making it through.

As for the show, the plays are tight, but audiences haven't come out as big and bad as we expected. We've gotten some good press--a great article in the Scotsman, several good reviews, and apparently (hopefully) a five-star review in the Scotsman, mother of all festival review papers, to look forward to in the next few days. So all signs are positive, and hopefully we'll pick up on crowds as the festival continues.

My lovely wife comes up tonight, which is exciting. The strain of the Fringe is a little hard on both of us, as it's a selfish and all-encompassing existence up here, so she gets to put up with either A) the pictures of the late night partying fun which she doesn't get to be a part of, or B)me calling and complaining about how much life, the Fringe, and our lack of crowds sucks. So, basically, she gets two kinds of bad. Not so much fun, I imagine.

But so far we're making it--a little rough and ragged, we all sound a little like Katherine Hepburn, with low, gravelly voices, and look a little like Tom Waits (especially Kitty), but we're surviving with enough money to get through the thing, so far, life is alright.